John Milton citations

Page 2

“[…], la paix ne corrompt pas moins que la guerre ne dévaste.”

“Celui qui a vaincu par la force, n’a vaincu qu’à moitié son ennemi.”

“Samson : […] chez les nations où la corruption est entrée, et que le vice a précipitées dans la servitude, quoi de plus commun que de préférer l’esclavage à la liberté : l’esclavage avec le bien-être, à la liberté qui exige la valeur; […]”

“[…], régner est digne d’ambition, même en enfer; mieux vaut régner en enfer que servir le ciel.”

“Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules
Passions, desires, and fears, is more a king.”

“This horror will grow mild, this darkness light.”

“For so I created them free and free they must remain.”

“What is dark within me, illumine.”

“And so sepúlchred in such pomp dost lie,
That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.”

“Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.”

“How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stol'n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!”

“Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.”

“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?”

“O sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams
That bring to my remembrance from what state I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere.”

“Our state cannot be severed, we are one,
One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.”

“Where the bright seraphim in burning row
Their loud uplifted angel trumpets blow.”

“Knowledge forbidden?
Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord
Envy them that? Can it be a sin to know?
Can it be death?”

“The mind is a universe and can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”

“Who overcomes
By force, hath overcome but half his foe.”

“Should God create another Eve, and I
Another Rib afford, yet loss of thee
Would never from my heart; no no, I feel
The Link of Nature draw me: Flesh of Flesh,
Bone of my Bone thou art, and from thy State
Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe.”

“Ah, why should all mankind
For one man's fault, be condemned,
If guiltless?”

“From his lips/Not words alone pleased her.”

“Luck is the residue of design.”

“Be strong, live happy and love, but first of all
Him whom to love is to obey, and keep
His great command!”

“So dear I love him, that with him all deaths I could endure, without him live no life.”

“Our cure, to be no more; sad cure!”

“Is it true, O Christ in heaven, that the highest suffer the most?
That the strongest wander furthest and most hopelessly are lost?
That the mark of rank in nature is capacity for pain?
That the anguish of the singer makes the sweetness of the strain?”

“Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best: his state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.”

“Here at last
We shall be free;
the Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.”

“Farewell happy fields,
Where joy forever dwells: Hail, horrors, hail.”

“Our torments also may in length of time
Become our Elements.”

“They who have put out the people's eyes reproach them of their blindness.”

“I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.”